13P/Olbers

Infobox Comet
name=13P/Olbers


discoverer=Heinrich Olbers
discovery_date=March 6, 1815
designations=1815 E1; 1887 Q1; 1887 V; 1887f; 1956 A1; 1956 IV; 1956a
epoch=1956-10-14 (JD ?)
semimajor=16.9067774 AU [Sofie Spjuth, [http://www.space.irfu.se/exjobb/2005_sofie_spjuth/Spjuth051029.pdf "Search for Comet Ion Tail Encounters - prediction and data analysis"] (2005)]
perihelion=1.18 AU [F. Selsis, J. Brillet, M. Rapaport, "Meteor showers of cometary origin in the Solar System: Revised predictions", Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 416, pp. 783-789 (2004) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20031724]
aphelion=32.6351 AU
eccentricity=0.93029715
period=69.5 a
inclination=44.60989°
last_p=June 19 1956
next_p=June 30 2024 cite web | last = Yeomans | first = Donald K. | url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi | title=Horizon Online Ephemeris System | publisher=California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory | accessdate=2007-12-14]

13P/Olbers is a periodic comet in our solar system.

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (Bremen) discovered the comet on March 6, 1815. Its orbit was first computed by Carl Friedrich Gauss on March 31, Friedrich Bessel calculated an orbital period as 73 a, later as 73.9 a, calculations by other astronomers have resulted anywhere between 72 and 77 a.

The comet was last detected in 1956, it will be closest to the Earth on January 10, 2094.

There is some speculation [cite web|title=Meteor Showers And Their Parent Bodies|url=http://star.arm.ac.uk/~aac/showers.jpg|accessdate=2006-12-30] that 13P/Olbers has an associated meteor shower on Mars coming from the direction of Beta Canis Major.

External links

* [http://cometography.com/pcomets/013p.html 13P at Kronk's Cometography]
* [http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~comet/pcmtn/0013p.htm 13P at Kazuo Kinoshita's Comets]
* [http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0013P/index.html 13P at Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog]
* [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=13P;orb=1;view=Far Orbital simulation] from JPL (Java) / [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=13P Ephemeris]

References